Powerless Penguins
by Kittypig
Summary: We rely on power all the time and so do the penguins! So what happens if the power goes out at the zoo? This is based on a true story that happened not too long ago. Please reveiw after you read this! I apreciate your support! ;D
1. Chapter 1: The Cause

Chapter One: The Cause

It was 9:00pm at the Central Park Zoo and all of the animals were settling in for the night. The chimps, Phil and Mason, settling into the branches of their tree, Marlene, the otter, resting her head on a popcorn bag she uses as a pillow, Joey, the kangaroo, lying on a bed of straw. Even the gorillas, Bada and Bing, were lying in their tire swing. But a few animals never slept. The lemurs were wide awake making preparations for one of their nightly dance parties. Maurice was at the smoothie bar making a drink for his "king". Mort was repeatedly trying to get to the "royal" feet and Julian was kicking him harshly to get him off.

"Mort! What did I tell you?" Julian cried as he kicked his poor subject.

"Wee! I like flying!" Mort said cheerfully as he flew through the air and the hard wind whipped at his face.

Meanwhile, the penguins were safe and sound in their habitat, readying themselves for a deep slumber. The flat-headed, short leader known as Skipper was pacing impatiently up and down the floor of the concrete HQ waiting for his lieutenant to burst out of the lab with good news. Skipper had his flippers folded behind his back his eyes scanning the cold, gray floor under his feet. It was so quiet, even the clock dared not to tick under the watchful and suspense-filled eye of Skipper. He decided he would have to distract his mind, perhaps a game of cards with the others. Skipper decided to check on what the status was on their mammal neighbors.

"Private, tell me the status on the lemurs! Give me every detail." Skipper said and pointed to a young penguin even shorter than him.

Private stared through the periscope and turned it quickly, each time looking at another one of the three lemurs.

"Looks like normal sir." Private said, his British accent making his words seem cute, even though they were important.

"_Our_ normal or _their_ normal?" Skipper asked, rushing over to the periscope pushing Private out of the way to look through, "Looks like _their _normal."

Private tilted his head in confusion at his leader's comment, shrugged his shoulders, and skipped over to the T.V. with one of his other older teammates.

Rico was watching the Shirtless Ninja Action Theater channel, to Private's dismay, but it was everyone else's favorite so he didn't argue. Rico watched attentively as the man in a white robe broke through a wall with his head. Private watched this too, but cringed at the sight.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Private wondered aloud. No one answered because they were too busy trying to keep occupied.

Skipper growled as he looked out the periscope at his mammal neighbors.

"Ringtail…" he trailed off angrily with words that weren't good for others to hear. Skipper didn't hate King Julian; he was just very irritated by his lemur acquaintance.

Rico's blue eyes were fixed on the screen of violence and cried with pleasure "Ka-boom!" and the whole room seemed to be filled with life once more. Suddenly, the smart lieutenant named Kowalski burst out of his lab.

"Eureka!" Kowalski yelled happily holding his new invention above his head.

"Finally," Skipper said, "now, is that invention of yours going to work this time?"

"Well, yeah," Kowalski replied, "and what do you mean '_this time_'?"

"It's nothing, nothing at all. Now, wow me." Skipper covered his former statement.

"Right," Kowalski turned away from Skipper, "I have created… Atomic Earmuffs!"

"Excellent! What do they do?" Skipper said, trying not to sound impressed.

"They block all sound," Kowalski explained and his eyes narrowed, "even lemur sound…"

"Outstanding, Kowalski!" Skipper commented, very excited he could finally get some rest.

All four of the penguins were thinking the same thing: a good night's rest.

Suddenly a noise sounded behind the four black-and-white birds. It was their T.V. On the screen was a middle-aged man in a tuxedo trying to keep his gray comb-over and his smile for the camera in place. His right hand holding his head and holding a blue microphone in the other. You could clearly see the wrinkles on the man's face that "Camera Magic" had failed to cover up.

Behind him was a horrible scene. Gray clouds filled the sky, some even forming into funnel clouds. At least one or two tornadoes had reached the ground and were now terrorizing the houses and other structures below. People were screaming but none were seen, except for the man in which the news alert was focused on. To everyone screaming's horror; houses were ripped apart by the twisters like they were pieces of paper.

There were heavy raindrops covering the lens of the camera, blurring the picture slightly. Even though there was the slight blur, the penguins watching could see the hail falling on the newscaster's umbrella starting to rip through. The man looked like he really wanted to leave the area, but couldn't because he had to inform the people watching at home.

"This is Chuck Charles and we have a severe thunderstorm advisory in place for New York City, especially the Central Park area. We will keep you posted on how this horrible storm is and where it shall strike next." the man yelled over the loud howling of the wind behind him.

"Oh, dear…" Private said his face showing great sorrow.

"Well, time for some shut-eye boys. Kowalski! Pass out the earmuffs!" Skipper ordered.

"But, Skippah, aren't we going to prepare for the storm?" Private asked his leader.

"Private! Remember what I've taught you: never listen to what those liars! Once I listened to them, I _thought_ it'd be sunny, but it rained all week!" Skipper raised his flippers and his voice to emphasize his point.

"Oh… Wait, you nevah mentioned _that_ before!"

"Really, Private? Or were you just not paying attention?"

Private gave in, seeing there's no point in fighting with a good friend. He turned off the T.V. before taking a pair of earmuffs and heading to his bunk at the top. Pleased with his winning of an argument, Skipper smiled, grabbed a pair of earmuffs, and took his place on the bottom bunk. Kowalski and Rico looked at each other, shrugged sleepily, and did the same as the others.

Each of them drifted off into their pleasant dreams easily because of their new-found silence. All except for Skipper, who lain on his back, thinking. His flippers were neatly folded across his belly, his blue eyes staring thoughtfully at the concrete above. He had his final thoughts of the day before drifting off into a pleasant dream of him beating his mortal enemies.


	2. Chapter 2: Where's My Electric?

Chapter 2: Where's My Electric?

The next morning, Skipper slowly opened his blue eyes to his normal HQ and yawned. But, there was a problem. He didn't hear anything. _Oh no! _Skipper thought _I've gone deaf!_ Skipper got up very alarmed, until he remembered what had happened last night. On the sides of his head he felt the fuzzy "high tech" items covering his ear holes. Quickly, he took off his headgear and decided not to wake the team even though it was almost time for the zoo to open.

Skipper walked over to the coffee maker and started the concoction to brew a fresh cup. He finally added the water to the machine and hit the red button to start the maker. Usually there would be a noise from the machine as a sign of it working. There was no noise this morning other than the snoring of the others.

"What the…?" Skipper said quietly as he poked the machine curiously.

Although he knew it wouldn't help, he tried hitting the red button again and repeatedly until finally he assumed it was unplugged. Skipper turned and stood on his webbed toes to find the back of the machine, since he was so short, when his eyes finally found the end of the wire was plugged in.

"What in the world is going on here?" Skipper yelled out loud.

He turned to his team for options, but they were all still asleep.

"Gee, those things really do work!" Skipper thought aloud, impressed but slightly annoyed.

Skipper removed the fuzzy headgear from his teammates' heads and yelled, "Kowalski, options!"

The smart lieutenant was the first to stand before his leader, hitting his head on the bunk above him.

"Good golly wholly that hurts," Kowalski said rubbing the back of his head.

"No time for bellyaching now," Skipper urged, "We have to fix my coffee maker!"

"Um, more like head aching..." Kowalski laughed to himself and snorted a couple times.

Skipper did not laugh. His eye twitched maniacally, as it always did when he was stressed.

"Heh, heh… Yeah, is the coffee machine plugged in?" Kowalski got serious though he still smiled.

"Yes," Skipper answered, "If you ask me, I think Blowhole did this."

"Skipper, that's not possible." Kowalski corrected, "He still thinks his name is Flippy, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, Flippy…" Skipper chuckled at remembering his arch enemy's downfall.

"Um, Skippah," Private came into the conversation, "the lights seem to be switched off."

"You're right, Private." Kowalski observed this as well along with the other penguins.

"Let's investigate, men." Skipper ordered.

The penguins walked to the ladder leading out of their lair, Rico got out first and slid the fishbowl overhead out of the way so the morning air could be met. The feathers on their bodies ruffled slightly in the soft breeze. When they were all outside, the penguins gasped at the sight that was before them.

There were fallen trees inside the zoo. Fences either looked like gates or were bent by the trees on top of them. The brick wall that outlined the zoo was mostly broken through. Their fellow zoo animals with no shelter were not seen except for the larger mammals Roy, Bert, Bada, and Bing. Skipper shuddered. He hadn't seen this amount of damage since he left Denmark. Skipper remained silent with the horrible thoughts running through his mind.

Private looked as if he was about to cry, startled at the fact that a storm could do so much. Kowalski, on the other hand, was completely fascinated. Something he could study! Rico was fascinated too, just not in the same way Kowalski was. If only his sticks of dynamite could do such a thing!

Quietly, the four commandos walked through the ruins they called home. Skipper led his team to Marlene's habitat first, looking into the cave that had hopefully sheltered her. They walked into the pitch-black darkness barely able to see what lied ahead.

"Marlene?" Skipper called his voice urgent.

A small noise sounded from the other side of the cave and a dark figure stood up.

"I-is it safe?" Marlene said meekly her glowing brown eyes scanning her surroundings.

"What's going on here?" Skipper asked instinctively.

"W-wait, didn't you g-guys hear the st-storm last night?" Marlene asked still shaking.

"Um… No." Skipper didn't want to talk about Kowalski's new invention, in case Marlene told or was a spy.

"How could you _not_ hear it?" Marlene raised her voice.

"That's classified, Marlene." Skipper looked away from her silhouette and spoke again, "Let's go outside where the light is better."

They all followed the flat headed penguin leader back into the ruins of the zoo. In the light, Marlene was revealed as a chestnut-colored female with caramel brown eyes and a pair of whiskers on each side of her pink nose.

"So, what happened here?" Skipper asked for the second time.

"Well, I was asleep when it happened but there was this big crashing sound and when I went outside to see what happened when I s-saw a-a…" Marlene was frightened and couldn't finish her story.

"Saw a what?" Skipper yelled, frustrated.

"T-there were these dark grey clouds forming huge funnels and thunder and lightning and-" Marlene was cut off by Skipper's flipper passing in front of her face.

"That's all I needed to hear!" Skipper said.

Marlene was confused but knew that it probably was part of their commando thing.

"Let's go men!" Skipper ordered and the penguins bounded out of the otter habitat.

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private approached the lemur habitat with caution, just in case the crazed lemur "king" was panicked. In which of course he was.

"Maurice! What has happened to my bouncy?" "King" Julian cried to his "big boned" right hand man.

The chubby Maurice with dark gray fur walked over to his king and their yellow and orange eyes met. King Julian looked down at his assistant and glared angrily like he was guilty of something.

"The power went out, your majesty." Maurice explained, "The bouncy won't have air in it anymore."

"Don't be ridiculous, Maurice!" Julian chuckled, "The bouncy doesn't need air, it doesn't breathe!"

Maurice rolled his eyes at the king and the penguins burst into the habitat.

"Hello, silly penguins," Julian greeted.

Skipper looked to Maurice and raised an eyebrow.

"The power's out?" he asked a flipper on his chin and his eyes looking at the ground.

"As far as I can tell, it is." Maurice replied.

"I could have told you _that_." Kowalski muttered.

"Then why didn't you?" Skipper snapped back.

Kowalski looked to his left and didn't speak.

"Right, so, how do we take care of this power problem?" Skipper turned to his lemur neighbors once more.

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter! I enjoy reading the reviews you guys post so please tell me how I did in this chapter! ;D**


	3. Chapter 3: Easier Said Than Done!

Chapter Three: Easier Said Than Done!

Skipper chatted with Maurice for a while about their current problem. Meanwhile, Kowalski, Rico, and Private were checking out the damage to the other habitats. The trees that were down were unnerving, and so were the gray clouds that still hung around. The first place they passed was Joey's habitat where the poor kangaroo was almost crushed under his own tree!

Private was frozen in fear. Kowalski bravely took charge since Skipper was busy and started barking orders.

"Rico, chainsaw!" he yelled.

Rico up-chucked a chainsaw and wiped his beak as his teammate caught it. Kowalski gagged at the slimy feeling in his flippers but soon forgot about it after Joey's worried cries woke him from his thoughts. The lieutenant pulled the string to start the device in his flipper.

"Help!" The sandy-colored kangaroo yelled.

Kowalski held the chainsaw to the wood and the blade cut through like there was nothing there. The kangaroo closed his eyes, flinching at the noise that the smelly item made. He did this at least a foot away from Joey's sides so the kangaroo didn't get cut. When he was done, Joey stood up and nodded.

"Thanks now get outta Joey's habitat!" Joey said. That was as grateful as he would get.

The trio quickly moved out of there, happy they had done a good deed. Kowalski, Rico, and Private waddled to the other habitats to check on the other zoosters. Roy and Bert, the rhino and the elephant, were alright. The chimps seemed to be alright, their tree still intact and them playing chess in the branches. The chameleons and other reptiles were okay, of course, since they lived inside a sturdy building but it didn't hurt to check. Finally, they had looked through the whole zoo and were on their way back to Skipper to be told what to do next.

The three arrived in the lemur habitat and made a full report on the condition of the zoo to Skipper.

"All is well in the reptile house, and most of the other habitats." Kowalski said.

"_Most_?" Skipper turned and looked his lieutenant in the eye.

"Well, we had to rescue Joey with the chainsaw but other than that…" Kowalski explained.

"Excellent, now we can execute our plan." Skipper said happily.

"Out of curiosity, what is the plan, Skippah?" Private asked.

"Operation: Shocking Storm. I can't give details until we get back to HQ." Skipper said.

With that, Skipper and his team leaped and bounded out of the lemur habitat and into their own. The four slipped down into their lair, unnoticed. Rico up-chucked a flashlight so they could see, after all the windows weren't much help; they were underwater! Without being asked, Kowalski, Rico, and Private sat down at the concrete table towards the middle of the room. Skipper came soon after, with supplies for planning stacked in front of his face to where he couldn't see. He had memorized his way around, so he made his way to the table with slight ease. He was still a bit rusty so he wasn't too graceful. Skipper laid the supplies out on the table; some small figurines, different colored markers, and a map of the zoo.

"Alright boys, this is Point A." Skipper explained pointing at the penguin exhibit on the map, "And Alice's office is Point B. We have to get to Point B quickly without any humans seeing us. The last thing we need is for this plan to go wrong. The whole zoo is counting on us."

Skipper explained the plan for a few hours until it was dinnertime. They jumped out of the lair sticking the landing onto their fake iceberg. It was a little chilly out because of the overcast blocking the sun, but the penguins didn't mind. Soon, Alice came with a bucket of slimy, salty fish.

"FISH!" Rico sang at the top of his lungs.

"Here's your food, you disgusting animals!" she said in usual annoyed tone. You could tell she really didn't like her job.

Skipper looked at the red head with mutual feelings, but decided food was a little more important right now. The penguins gulped down the blue salmon with delight, making sure to get every little bit. When everyone had eaten their share, it was time for bed. They wouldn't need their earmuffs tonight. Without electric, the lemurs would have no music.

Skipper looked to his men, smiled and said, "There may be a bright side to this power problem."

The four got into their bunks that were carved into the wall, and closed their eyes. For the second night in a row Skipper found himself staring at the concrete above him thinking. Then something popped into his mind. What if Kowalski used something to temporarily bring the electric back? The thought made him fidget with excitement and soon he had fallen asleep.

The next morning Skipper did the same thing he did yesterday morning, and remembered what had happened. He put down his mug and woke the others with a yell.

"Up and at 'em!"

Private got out of his bunk and joyfully hopped around. Kowalski landed on his feet and stood tall. Rico jumped down and stood relaxed still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Skipper looked to Kowalski.

"Kowalski," Skipper said, "Do you know how to make a backup generator?"

The lieutenant looked confused at the question for a moment.

"Well, it may take a while but I think I can." Kowalski replied.

"Outstanding. We'll use that as Plan B." Skipper smiled confidently. Things were finally looking up.

They ate their breakfast quickly to go over Operation: Shocking Storm one more time. At 0900 hours (9:00am) the team headed out to put their plan into gear. They moved swiftly through the zoo by belly-sliding, constantly hiding behind lampposts, trashcans, and benches. They got to Alice's office and moved along the brick wall trying to blend in.

The penguins made it to the breaker box but weren't tall enough to reach.

"Stack up men!" Skipper said and they stacked up with Kowalski on the top to figure out the wires.

Kowalski opened the small door and was shocked at how many wires were there. He looked around the box, somewhat confused. There were small pieces of paper next to switches with words on them, but he couldn't read so that wouldn't help. After a while Kowalski came to one conclusion: there was no way this plan would work.

"Skipper, this won't work." The lieutenant said.

"What do you mean 'won't work'?" Skipper asked irritated.

"Well, it appears we need to be able to read to make this work. And there are so many wires here I don't know what to do!" Kowalski said gaining a headache.

"Fine. We'll go with Plan B then." Skipper said a little disappointed.

The four penguins un-stacked and headed back to HQ without another word.

**Thanks a lot for all of your reviews! Sorry it took so long to update this but, I'm a busy bee! Thanks again and please review some more! ;D**


	4. Chapter 4: Party Animals

Chapter 4: Party Animals

For the second time this week, Skipper found himself pacing around the HQ staring at the concrete ground waiting for one of Kowalski's "breakthroughs". He looked at the door to the scientist's lab, at the clock, then at the floor again. A sudden feeling came over the leader. His head hurt and he went into a daze. He was so tired… Skipper yawned and looked at the clock. 11:45 in the morning! Maybe he was just bored. Skipper waddled to his bunk that and sat down, relieving his poor webbed feet. He grabbed a magazine of monster trucks and other dangerous things to look at, and lounged a bit. After about five minutes he drifted into a light sleep.

**Dream Sequence**

_Skipper walked through dim light until it was pitch black. He was confused. Where was he?_

"_Hello?" he called into the darkness. _

_No answer. He treaded on, hoping to find anything other than darkness. _

_A sudden light surprised and blinded Skipper for a moment causing him to rub his eyes. Skipper looked up and couldn't believe his eyes! _

"_It's you!" Skipper exclaimed and ran towards the thing in the spotlight. _

_There was a machine in the light, but not just any machine. His coffee machine._

_Skipper held the machine close and hugged it, running his flipper down the sleek machine's plastic outer shell. It shined in the light that seemed to come out of nowhere. There was a tin mug next to the "gorgeous" machine and the penguin picked it up. Skipper hit the big red button and heard the hum of coffee being made. The leader's heart fluttered with joy as he took a big whiff of his favorite drink. Oh, how he missed this! He laughed and giggled staring at the machine intently. But the dream come true came to an end when a huge wave-like shadow washed over the moment and all turned black once again. Laughter echoed through the dream land then faded away. "Noooooooo!" He cried. Then the dream ended and Skipper woke up with a jolt._

**Reality**

Skipper opened his eyes, heart pounding and his eyes big. He gulped and turned to the table on the other side of the room. Private and Rico stared at him.

"What?" Skipper asked like there was nothing wrong.

"Um, are you alright, Skippah?" Private asked.

"Yeah why?" Skipper quickly replied. What had they seen?

"You seem a bit… shook up." Private said.

"And what does 'shook up' look like to you?"

Rico did an impression of a little kid who had just woken up from a nightmare, complete with shaking and whimpering.

Skipper returned his gaze to Private and lowered his brow sternly.

"Never mind." Private said and quickly pretended to focus on the card game he and Rico were playing.

Rico focused too, and managed to ask, "Any threes?"

"Go fish!" Private said joyfully.

Rico pulled a card from the pile in the center of the table and frowned. It wasn't the card he wanted. Rico reluctantly put the card into his deck and continued playing.

Skipper looked back at the lab door. Kowalski apparently wasn't done yet. Skipper pondered about this for a while.

The leader's concentration broke when a hum sounded through the HQ and the lights came on. The three penguins looked around, very surprised. Kowalski walked out of his lab proudly, his chest puffed out and his head held high.

"I've done it! We now have electric. But only temporarily so don't use anything that'll drink up a lot of electricity like the T.V." Kowalski said with warning.

"Excellent," Skipper complimented and ran over to the coffee machine and started making coffee.

The rest of the team looked at him and looked at each other. They shrugged their shoulders and went about their business.

But soon, Kowalski had to turn off the generator and he walked towards his lab to do so until…

"Hello, neighbors!" King Julien came through the entrance with his two subjects and his "Boomy Box"

"Ringtail?!" Skipper yelled, both surprised and already annoyed.

"Yes, it is me, your king." Julien said, "We have come to run my boomy-box. It won't work unless the lights are being on, and here, they are!"

"Ringtail, you can't run that thing _here_!" Skipper complained.

Julien acted disappointed then sprang onto Skipper.

"Help me, please! I haven't shaken my booty in a million forevers!"

"Um… let me think… NO!" Skipper snapped back.

"Whoops, already plugged it in!" Julien said standing by the outlet.

A sudden burst of music sounded and everyone but Julien was blown back against the wall. Julien started dancing and laughing. Skipper was NOT amused.

"Kowalski, options!" Skipper shouted but it did no good.

"What?" Kowalski yelled back. The noise of the jukebox was so intense, not even Skipper could yell over it. Especially since the HQ was made mostly of solid objects, causing an echo. All Kowalski knew was that Skipper was talking but couldn't understand. Suddenly the lights went off and so did the music.

Kowalski looked up and around and waddled up to Julien.

"Thanks! Now you've blown out the generator!" Kowalski yelled in panic.

"You're welcome." Julien replied ignorantly.

Kowalski rolled his eyes at the king's words and turned to Skipper.

"Can you fix it up again?" the leader asked.

"I'll have to check. Maybe the damage isn't too bad." Kowalski answered hopefully.

The scientist opened the lab door slowly; afraid of what he might see. He looked inside and gasped in horror. His beautiful machine was on fire! Kowalski ran around the lab screaming and yelling in a high-pitched voice until he found his fire extinguisher. He aimed and opened fire letting loose fluffy foam that looked a lot like shaving cream. The flames died down leaving only ashes and burnt metal in their place.

Kowalski dropped down to his knees beside the machine.

"NOOOOOO!" he cried out.

"Don't worry we'll help you build another." Private said optimistically.

Kowalski stood up and said, "I'll need a wrench and some pliers."

"Rico?" Skipper said and Rico coughed up the needed supplies.

And with that, Kowalski got to work on his project for the second time that day.

**Hey, guys! I finally got chapter 4 up for your amusement! Hooray! So, please review! I'll try to get chapter 5 up soon! ;D**


	5. Chapter 5: And Finally Power!

Chapter 5: And Finally… Power!

Kowalski worked for what seemed like forever. At least to the other penguins it did. Of course they didn't find tampering with the laws of science entertaining. Kowalski was about to finish when a sudden noise outside the lab startled the four, causing them to roll out. (Literally.)

They got into defensive formation, Skipper on point. Marlene stood in front of the four puzzled. Then she smiled.

"Hi, guys."

"Marlene! What are you doing here?" Skipper demanded letting his guard down.

"I was just wondering, when do you think the power's coming back?" Marlene asked.

"Kowalski?" Skipper gestured to the smart penguin, who shrugged his shoulders.

"Great." She said flatly.

"What's the worry, Marlene?" Skipper asked suspiciously inching forward.

"Nothing!" Marlene yelled at Skipper.

It only made Skipper's gaze more intense.

_Oh, brother… _Marlene thought and looked Skipper.

"Why are _you _worried?" Marlene asked back.

Skipper quickly looked around the room and said, "That's classified information Marlene!"

"Alright then, it's classified for me too." Marlene said pushing Skipper away from her face, "So, whatcha guys doin'?"

"We're trying to fix Kowalski's machine!" Private blurted out.

"Private!" Skipper snapped.

Marlene stared for a moment and didn't think she should ask anymore.

"Right, well, good luck with that…" Marlene said as she made her way out the way she had come in.

The four penguins continued their "classified" activity. Kowalski asked for one final tool and finished. The team was exhausted, mostly because it was really late at night, so they all piled into bed and slept the night away.

The next morning Kowalski, Private, and Rico woke up to find Skipper face-down at the coffee machine. He was drooling and snoring and mumbling to himself in his sleep. The others looked at each other with worry, afraid to wake their leader knowing he'd be grouchy about it. So they left him alone and Kowalski started up the generator.

It worked! Then the trio played cards and ate breakfast without Skipper telling them to train. They played go fish until Skipper woke up.

"Huh? What the…? Kowalski, what's going on?" Skipper demanded.

"Oh, you were asleep so we-" Kowalski was cut off by Skipper's voice.

"Played cards the whole time." Skipper continued the sentence sternly.

The three smiled nervously awaiting their punishment. But there wasn't one. Instead, Skipper made a cup of coffee and settled down with a deck of cards. It wasn't normal behavior so Kowalski and Private spoke up.

"Hey, I have an idea, how 'bout some training exercises?" Private suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Kowalski said and left the table.

"OK!" Rico said happily.

"That's the spirit, boys!" Skipper applauded.

So Kowalski turned off the generator and they all went outside and did some laps around the zoo. By the time they got back to their habitat, it was noon.

Kowalski walked into the lab to turn on the generator on but, where did it go? Generators don't just get up and walk away!

Kowalski burst out of the lab and yelled.

"The generator's gone!"

"What?!" everyone yelled simultaneously.

Skipper walked into the lab and inspected it.

"He's right. But who would steal it?" Skipper paused, "Ringtail!"

They headed to the lemur habitat and found Julien trying to plug the generator in. He was jabbing the outlet with the cord and was frustrated by the looks of things. Finally he noticed the four penguins staring at him angrily.

"Oh, hello silly penguins! I was just… uh, borrowing this power machine to power my boomy box, my bouncy, and my party lights. So, if you don't mind I'll just-"

"Not happening, Ringtail. We need it for top-secret stuff!" Skipper said as he yanked the cord and started a tug-of-war.

"My reason is more important! I must do my kingly duties!"

The two pulled and pulled on the cord until… SNAP! The cord snapped in half.

"Eh, he did it!" Julien pointed at Skipper and ran away.

"This is fixable, right, Kowalski?" Skipper asked hopefully.

Kowalski sighed, knowing that this was the _third _time he had to fix the generator and it might not be the final.

Kowalski worked for the rest of that day trying to fix the cord by tying the two broken halves of copper together, then putting the outside sheathe back on. He plugged it in and sparks flew so he turned it off and worked out more solutions. Nothing worked. Finally he came to the conclusion he'd have to make a new one and make the whole thing lemur-proof. So the team set out to the home improvement store to find a cord.

When the right cord was found, they knocked out the clerk, put money on the counter, and left with their merchandise. Kowalski got into the lab and included the cord on his device. This time he didn't celebrate his success, he just reported to Skipper and fired it up again.

"Alright, men," Skipper addressed his team, "someone will always be in HQ to make sure the generator isn't tampered with by you-know-who."

The team agreed.

"We'll continue normal duties today with a patrol to check on the neighbors. Private will stay here." Skipper ordered.

Then the others left, leaving little Private all alone in the cold, quiet, concrete HQ. His steps echoed when he moved around. Private settled down in his bunk to color in some Lunacorn coloring books. As he colored, there was a noise at the entrance and down tumbled the small lemur Mort. Private got down greeting the lemur.

"Hi, I fell down!" Mort giggled.

"Um, yes, but what are you doing here?" Private asked.

"I'm a distraction!"

Private gasped in horror as the machine was ambushed by King Julien and was taken away.

"NO!"

Private chased the lemurs through the zoo until fatigue got the best of him and he had to return his habitat.

"What am I going to tell Skippah?" Private thought aloud as he hopped over the fence. A voice sounded from the fishbowl entrance.

"Where's the generator?!" It was Kowalski.

Private gulped as he climbed down the ladder.

"Private! Where have you been? Where's Kowalski's machine?" Skipper questioned.

"I'm so sorry Skippah! I didn't mean for the lemurs to steal the machine, I-" Just then Marlene burst into the room.

"Guys! Did you hear? The electric came back!" Marlene yelled happily.

"Kowalski? What would happen if the generator is plugged in and the power comes back?" Skipper asked.

"There would be a power overload so I'd wager the lights will explode right about…" there was a sudden 'boom' sound, "now!"

The penguins smiled with satisfaction, Marlene did too. She was smart enough to know what was going on.

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story! I love those reviews! Look for more stories, 'cause you know I'll write 'em! LOL ;D**


End file.
